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4 Weight Loss Tips

We all know and understand the importance of maintaining a healthy weight. Some individuals do quite nicely at managing their pounds with seemingly little effort, while other struggle constantly.

A recent study by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that 78 million American adults suffer from obesity. A person who has sustained an injury or suffers from an illness that affects their back, hips, knees or ankles are especially susceptible to weight gain, because they must deal with limited mobility and the stress of daily pain.

Striving to stay in the ideal weight range for your body type and height provides a variety of health benefits such as adding less pressure on your back and joints, and increasing your range of motion.

Try these four handy weight loss tips

First, start small

Replace a couple of negative behaviors with positive ones, and commit to making them stick. Great examples of these are substituting water for soft drinks, eating a high-protein breakfast, or changing out your nightly bowl of ice cream with yogurt.

Simply removing 100 calories a day adds up to a 10 pound weight loss over a year’s time. Small modifications offer the dual benefits of being easier to implement while still showing results.

Next, keep a journal

Write down every bite you eat along with the portion size. Listing your food intake provides accountability, which may keep you from noshing on that third slice of pizza or super-sizing those fries.

It also arms you with important intel that will be helpful throughout your weight loss journey. If you hit a plateau, read back through the journal to see what you may have changed over time that caused the scales to stall.

And speaking of scales….

Don’t live and cry by the scales

Often, dieters weigh every day and are elated or depressed based on the number on the scales. That’s a roller coaster way to live, and those emotions can cause calorie laden binges!

Plus, daily weighing is not accurate, as fluctuations in water weight are common. Weigh once a week at the most, at roughly the same time each day. A weekly routine gives you a good idea of your success without the stressful up and down of daily weighing.

Decrease your sedentary ways

Even if you are dealing with an injury or medical condition that limits the ability to exercise, you can still probably be less sedentary than you are now. Again, simplicity is the key.

Walk into the bank instead of using the drive through window, stand up to fold clothes instead of sitting down, and take periodic breaks at your desk to stand for a bit.

Ask your chiropractor about any limitations you need to follow, and request stretching exercises as your personal situation permits. Moving more on a daily basis will aid in shedding those extra pounds and keeping them off long-term.

It’s important for individuals to maintain a normal weight range in order to enjoy a healthy life. Chiropractic patients benefit even more from shedding those extra pounds.

By committing to a healthier lifestyle with fewer pounds to carry around, individuals with back and joint injuries will see greater positive impact from their chiropractic visits. Over time, the combination of a leaner body and chiropractic care will bring greater mobility, less pain, and a decreased chance for re-injury to the patient.